It was past noon when Henry woke up; he could smell coffee brewing. He got up to shower and shave then came downstairs wearing the new clothes that he had bought. He found Alice in the kitchen pouring some coffee; she turned around and smiled at him.

“I was wondering if you were ever going to get out of bed.”

Her smile unnerved him – he gave her a small smile as he walked over to get a coffee mug.

“Don’t bother, this is for you. I heard the shower and knew you’d be done. I made it just the way you like it.”

“Th-thank you, Alice.” He looked at the mug nervously.

Alice let out a giggle then took a sip of her coffee. She raised her eyebrow as if to say, ‘See, nothing wrong with the coffee.’ Henry gave her a nervous smile then began to drink his coffee.

*****

Four boys ranging in age from seven to nine years old were playing catch in the empty lot. One blond-headed boy overthrew the ball, and his red-haired friend laughed as he ran to find it in the tall grass. His friends jumped in fright when they heard a loud scream. They ran towards the sound, fearing that their friend was hurt.

“Billy…Billy…what’s wrong!? Are you okay?” the three boys shouted. They found Billy standing still; he turned to his friends and pointed. As they got closer, eyes wide with fear, they saw a pair of feet – and as they got closer still, they found the feet belonged to the dead body lying in the grass.

*****

Once the bomb squad gave the all-clear and Joe and Frank gave their statements to the police, the brothers drove to the tire shop and bought a new tire and spare for the van. When the new tire was put on the van, they kept their plans and headed for the park.

“Hey, Frank…Joe!” Biff waved the brothers over. He and Chet were standing underneath a basketball hoop.

“I thought you said you were going to be here early,” Chet said.

“I knew Joe wouldn’t be able to get up…unless it’s for Vanessa, of course!” teased Biff.

“Vanessa is a lot prettier than you two!” Joe shot back good-naturedly.

“We did get up early enough but we…uh…had a little delay.” Frank smiled at Joe.

“Yeah, the van had a flat and worse yet, it was the spare!” Joe rolled his eyes as if disgusted with himself.

“We were going to borrow Dad’s car since mine is still in the shop except…” Frank paused.

“...there was a little problem of a bomb,” finished Joe.

“WHAT?!!” Biff and Chet shouted at the same time.

Frank and Joe calmly told their friends what had happened, and Biff and Chet listened with fascination.

“Thank goodness you guys are okay!” Biff said with relief.

“Yeah…in a weird way it was a good thing you got into your dad’s car. Does he have any idea who might have planted the bomb?” Chet looked questioningly at Frank and Joe.

“No, when we left he was going to call Sam too, and have him check if anyone he put away is out of jail,” replied Joe.

“He also is going to have Sam check if anyone we put away is out as well.”

“Whoever it is, I hope they find them soon,” Chet said.

“Still want to play some B-ball?” asked Biff, thinking to change the subject.

“Sure…me and Frank against you and Chet?” Joe grinned.

*****

It was after five o’clock when Joe and Frank returned home. They were going up the stairs when the phone rang. Joe was still at the bottom step, and turned to answer the phone. He was curious when he checked the Caller ID and saw the Bayport police number.

“Hello, Hardy residence. Hi Con…I don’t know, I just got in; let me check…hold on.”

Holding onto the cordless phone, Joe walked over to Fenton’s office door and softly knocked. There was no answer so he went into the living room and saw his parents watching television.

“Con’s on the phone for you,” he said, handing Fenton the phone.

“Thank you, Joe….Hello, Con.”

“Hello Mr. Hardy. The Chief thought I should call you…could you come down to the morgue?”

“Um…sure – can I ask why?”

“I’ll explain when you get here…Dr. Bates is there and he said he needed to talk to you.”

“I’m on my way.” Clicking the ‘off’ button, Fenton sat quietly for a moment wondering what Dr. Bates had to say.

“Did Ezra have information about who planted the bomb?” asked Laura.

“Hmm…uh, no....I need to go to the morgue. Maybe Ezra has a case for me.”

“There goes a nice quiet summer!” teased Laura before kissing Fenton goodbye.

Despite the hour, traffic was light and Fenton made it to the city morgue in record time. He found Con waiting for him when he walked in the door.

“What’s this about, Con?”

“I’m not really sure. All Dr. Bates would say was that you would be interested in this case,” Con replied with a shrug.

“What’s Ed doing in the morgue? He doesn’t normally do autopsies,” Fenton mused.

“I don’t, but Sylvie called me when the body came in…seems she recognized him. Good to see you, Fenton. How are my favorite patients?”

“They’re great and in good health!” Fenton laughed.

“Darn, I was hoping to take the missus on a trip to Europe!” teased Dr. Bates.

Fenton laughed – he knew the doctor was joking. They had a running joke that his sons had supplied Dr. Bates with a new car, new home and several overseas vacations due to their injuries from different cases they worked on.

There was one covered body lying on the slab. The medical examiner, Dr. Sylvie Richards, stood next to it.

“Go ahead and show him, Sylvie.”

She pulled away the cover revealing the face, and Fenton let out a gasp.

“Is that…is that Dr. Nicholson?” Fenton turned to Dr. Bates.

“Yes it is. Normally I would have just called you but…well, Sylvie found something interesting during her autopsy.” Dr. Bates gave a nod to Sylvie.

“Aside from the knife wounds to his chest – I did a toxic screen and found a large amount of barbiturates in his system which would have killed him in a matter of minutes. From the amount in his body – stabbing him was overkill.”

“And because he was arrested for theft, his prints were on file. Dr. Nicholson planted that bomb in your car,” Con told Fenton.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.